Business Intelligence/Analytics Topic Center

Business intelligence and analytics news, in-depth articles and more

IBM preps SmartCloud for real-time analytics

Deploying an update of its DB2 database, IBM is pitching its SmartCloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for use in data reporting and analysis.
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Wall Street Beat: Market stokes tech IPOs, as Tableau and Marketo debut

A strong stock market could open the floodgates for more tech IPOs in the wake of Friday's solid debut of Marketo and Tableau, but not all segments of IT may be able to ride the wave.

SAP builds out HANA platform and ecosystem

Anyone remotely within the orbit of SAP lately knows that its number-one focus is the HANA in-memory database and development platform. At this week's Sapphire conference in Orlando, the vendor sought to show the progress it is making in both building out HANA's capabilities as well as attracting developers and partners to HANA.

Twitter buys big-data analyzer Lucky Sort

Twitter has acquired Lucky Sort, a data analytics company, in a move that could give the social network deeper insights into its users' tweets and how to best place advertisements on its site.

More data isn't always better, says Nate Silver

Big data may seem to promise big insights to users, but more isn't always better, cautions statistician Nate Silver.

Downdetector.com scours Twittersphere to detect service outages faster

A Dutch startup has launched a service that studies data from social networks to quickly identify online service outages -- sometimes, it says, before the service providers know about the outages themselves.

Facebook's big data plans include warehouses, faster analytics

Facebook may treasure the data it has on its one billion-plus users for its advertising returns, but the analysis the site performs on that data is expected to continue to pose numerous challenges over the coming year, an engineer said.

Crowdsourcing Offers a New and Wider Path to Innovation

GE, Allstate try crowdsourcing contests where external brainiacs compete to produce the best answers to big-data analytics questions.

Pivotal launched from VMware, EMC technologies

Making good on a promise made in December, VMware and parent company EMC have launched a new company, called Pivotal, to offer an enterprise-ready data analysis platform as a service (PaaS) based on software from both companies.

SAP and Oracle winners as software growth slows, IDC says

A growing interest in big data, analytics and cloud computing helped propel a weak software enterprise market last year, according to research from IDC. SAP and Oracle fared the best among the large software vendors.

Thornton May: Stalking the elusive data scientist

Since it is virtually impossible to find all needed analytical skills resident in the same human being, it might be wise to adopt an 'ensemble' approach to your organization's deficit in those skills. Insider (registration required)

BI Deployments should be Quick, Business-focused and User-driven: Henry Seddon

Business Discovery is a whole new way of exploring and making use of data that puts business users in control. Unlike traditional BI, where just a few people are involved in insight creation, Business Discovery enables everyone to create insight. QlikTech is pioneering the usage of user-driven BI. With QlikView Business Discovery, business users can easily analyze data and experience that "a-ha" moment of discovery. To find out more about this revolutionary approach, Sneha Jha spoke to Henry John Seddon, VP-Global Field Marketing, QlikTech, about BI, Business Discovery, big data, in-memory analytics, and the power of data for strategic decision-making.

Boston bombings was not about failed intelligence

Texas law enforcement officer Nick Selby balks at the notion that last week's Boston Marathon bombings was the result of an intelligence failure.

Health-IT early adopters well-poised for big-data advances in clinical medicine

Nearly a decade after research firms predicted major cost savings and clinical benefits from the use of health-IT, adoption rates among U.S. medical providers remain sluggish, with the industry slow to embrace the big-data movement.

5 strategic tips for avoiding a big data bust

Failed expectations, increased costs, unnecessary legal risks -- going blind into a big data project doesn't pay

Low latency drives HK data center services for financials

The ability to trade securities at nanosecond speeds has become a reality.

Chart and image gallery: 30+ free tools for data visualization and analysis

This sortable chart lets you compare dozens of tools for functionality, skill level and more.

Six useful JavaScript libraries for dealing with data

These JavaScript libraries can help format your data for analysis or a compelling online presentation.

Feds take (baby) steps to fight fraud with analytics

ID'ing fraud is a good first step, but the power of analytics won't be tapped until agencies can share data more freely. Insider (registration required)

Forget big data, the value is in 'big answers'

The CTO of Barack Obama's reelection campaign says we need to stop worrying about big data and turn our attention instead to the 'big answers' the data provides. EMC, which made big data news this week, is one tech company that plans to translate big answers into big customer wins.